


Night Terrors, Blankets, and Proper Sleeping Techniques

by paperjamBipper



Series: Memory Lane [8]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:40:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25272550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperjamBipper/pseuds/paperjamBipper
Summary: A week after Weirdmageddon’s conclusion, Ford’s dreams are filled with nothing but vivid nightmares reminding him of what Bill did to him. Chasing after him, Hanging him by the wrists, and electrocuting him while his demonic frieds cheer him on. He hides it from his family well, until one unfortunate night when his niece overhears him  when she wakes up in the middle of the night in search for the bathroom.
Relationships: Ford Pines & Mabel Pines
Series: Memory Lane [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1830763
Comments: 4
Kudos: 46





	Night Terrors, Blankets, and Proper Sleeping Techniques

Ford is running. That’s all he can think about doing as he attempts to navigate himself around the Fearamid. When the Pines family split up, it was him that Bill chose to chase after. Ford could hear pillar after pillar being destroyed behind him as Bill pursued him on foot. Bill was yelling things to him, but he couldn’t pay attention long enough to make out what they were. Running. Running was all he could think about.

He makes a sharp turn just as Bill attempts to shoot beams of blue lightning at him. He knew taking the turn couldn’t throw Bill off, but at least he saved himself from earning another handful of unwanted scars all over his body. He hears Bill slow down for a moment, and he sighed with relief. He began to slow his pace, until he heard even larger footsteps approach him at a much faster pace. Bill must have slowed down to grow more legs to chase after him. After all, it was Ford who had the information Bill needed, and he felt he didn’t need to waste time with the rest of the Pines family if Ford was still running loose.

Ford felt his breath becoming heavier. Although he had been running from interdimensional police for 30 years, Ford couldn’t ignore the fact that he was getting older. So he nixes the idea to outrun Bill and instead decides to try to trick him. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would be worth a shot. Closing his eyes, Ford takes another sharp turn, and another, and another. He hears Bill groaning loudly in the distance, which relieves him. Ford sighs, and feels himself ease up. He’s about to take one more turn, to throw off Bill enough for Ford to walk his way to safety, when all of a sudden, he finds himself cornered in every direction. The only way to go is back, but Ford doesn’t want to risk running straight into Bill. He begins punching at the wall, attempting to chip away at it.

However, before he can even make a crack in the wall, a large shadow looms over him. He freezes, and refused to turn around. He knew Bill deformed himself to some horrible creature and Ford refused to look him in the eye. Against his own will, however, he finds his feet dragging along the ground and with a quick spinning motion he is forced to turn around and stare Bill dead in the eye.

“Now. Give me the information or else!”

Ford swallows hard. “Never!” he shouts. “I’ll die before I tell you anything!”

“Playing hard to get, huh? Fine. Then I guess we’re gonna have to start doing things my way” Bill’s eye starts illuminating light blue, and Ford finds himself being levitated in the air.

“No…not again…” he whispers, but as soon as light blue chains begin to appear on his neck, throat, and knees, the blood begins to drain from his face. “No!” he begins to yell. “No! No!”

“Grunkle Ford?” Mabel’s voice cuts through his own, and all of a sudden he finds himself in his own bedroom in the shack, inches away from his niece’s face. The lights in his room are on, and his heart is pounding out of his chest. As he sits up, Mabel moves out of his way to give him space.

“Mabel?” He asks, bringing a hand to his chest. She smiles, and walks back over to him and wraps her arms around him in a tight hug.

“It’s okay Grunkle Ford, I’m here. You’re okay”

“What…” Ford reaches over to the table next to him for his glasses and puts them on. He then looks up at the window. It’s still very dark out. “What time is it?”

“Around 3 or so in the morning” Mabel says as she backs away from the hug.

Ford rubs his head. This was the fifth night in a row he had such a vivid nightmare like that. But this was the first night he had woken up before Bill was able to torture him again. Weirdmageddon had ended over a week ago, but he still could not shake the images of being hung up in chains and electrocuted until his skin was dark and smoking. He glances down at his wrists. Beneath his red sweater are two dark red blistering scars, one on each wrist that, if they rubbed against something the wrong way, would sting and burn for hours.

He looks over at Mabel. She had a lot of emotion in her face, but concern was the most obvious.

“Here. You look like you need this more than I do” She says, and holds a cup out to him. He only now realized she had been holding it in her hand the entire time she’d been in his room. “It’s just water” She says to reassure him, and he takes the cup from her. He takes a sip, and places it down on the table.

“Mabel, did anyone else hear me?”

“No” she says, taking the cup from the table. “Just me.” She places the cup back into Ford’s hand. “Drink more. You were yelling pretty loudly. Your throat must be killing you”

Ford frowns as he brings the cup to his mouth to take another sip. “Mabel, were you…did I…” his voice breaks off.

“Did you wake me up? No. I got up to use the bathroom and to get a drink of water and ran downstairs when I heard you”

Ford felt a little relieved that he hadn’t been the source that woke Mabel, but he still wasn’t completely satisfied by the fact that he was loud enough to be heard from upstairs.

“What about your brother? Did he wake up?”

“Not that I saw”

“And Stan?”

“Nope”

Ford sighs.

“Mabel, I’m sorry”

“Hm?” Mabel asks. She was confused by this sudden apology. “Why’s that, Grunkle Ford?”

“Because” He says, looking away from her and down at his wrists again. “You’re the last person I want to see me like this. You’re so kind and optimistic about everything. I don’t want to be the person that made you lose those things”

“Hey” Mabel says, and places her hand gently on his wrists. This causes him to look up at her. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about me. If I were you, I’d be more concerned with you. I mean, just look at you!” She says, and Ford begins to feel embarrassed.

“What about me?”

“You’re wearing your blanket wrong! Here, let me fix that for you”

Before Ford can question what Mabel’s doing, she takes the blanket off of his bed.

“Now lie down.”

Ford rolls his eyes playfully and lies back down in his bed. Mabel then throws the blanket over him vertically so it covers his entire body instead of just his torso. Strangely, Ford finds that having his entire body covered with instead of just his top half made him feel much safer.

“There” Mabel says, reaching forward to take Ford’s glasses off for him. “You look comfier already. Doesn’t that feel better?”

Ford sits up again. “Yes, but something still doesn’t feel right.”

“Well duh, that’s because you’re still wearing your boots. Silly Grunkle, nobody wears their shoes to bed anymore.” She pauses. “Actually, I don’t think anyone’s _ever_ worn their shoes to bed before. Kick them off”

“But Mabel, I…” His voice trails off as Mabel sits down on the floor in front of him and pulls his boots off herself.

“Try lying down again and tell me if that feels any better”

Ford lies down again. Mabel’s right. Taking his heavy boots off did make him feel much better. But he can’t help shake what he was feeling before.

“Mabel, are you sure you’re going to be okay?”

Mabel sits on the edge of the couch Ford preferred to sleep on close to his head.

“I’m sure, Grunkle Ford. I’ve shared a room with Dipper since we were babies. This isn’t the something like this has happened.”

Ford looks down at his soft blanket and the water cup sitting on the table next to his glasses. He could tell. He really appreciated what Mabel was doing for him. No wonder Stan loved her so much. Ford had noticed that when she wasn’t with Dipper, Mabel spent a lot of time with Stan. They watched TV together, they played cards, and he even once saw her lead a tour of the shack side by side with him. And now he could see why.

For Mabel to go out of her way to come downstairs to assure he was okay, to give up her drink to him instead of ignoring him and going back to bed like she could have amazed Ford. Although small gestures, Ford hadn’t been shown that level of care in over 30 years. Lying here in bed, only a few days before she and Dipper were supposed to return home to California, Ford realized just how little time he spent with Mabel during the short time he had been out of the portal.

“Mabel,” He says, looking up slightly from his pillow at her general direction.

“Yeah?”

“I just want to say thank you, and once again I would like to apologize”

“For what?”

“I wanted to thank you for being so kind to me about what happened tonight and…” He pauses for a moment. “I wanted to apologize for not spending a lot of time with you”

“Oh, that’s nothing to apologize for. A lot was happening then.”

Mabel was a lot more mature than she looked, Ford realized. But no, he wouldn’t accept that answer.

“I mean, you’re a very sweet and creative girl. Smart, too. I’m just surprised I never got to find these things out about you sooner”

“That’s okay” Mabel says. “Besides, we can still do something. You wanna go watch a movie? I’ve got one in mind I think you’d LOVE”

“I would love too, sweetie, but isn’t it too late to watch a movie?”

Mabel stands up and gasps dramatically. “Grunkle Ford, don’t say that! It’s NEVER too late for Dreamboy High!”

Ford laughs. “Thank you, but I think I’d rather wait until morning. You know Stan will kill me if he finds out I encouraged you to stay up all night.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right” Mabel says, but then smirks. “I can’t be held as a witness at 12. Everyone would be too scared to come near me”

They both laugh. “Alright then, do you think you’ll be good until morning?” Mabel asks.

“I do now that you taught me how to sleep properly” He teases, and she smiles.

“Okay then! Goodnight Grunkle Ford” she says, walking to the door. As the door’s about to shut completely, she leans in one last time. “I love you” she whispers, just loudly enough for him to hear, and then she’s gone.

Mabel’s final words echo in Ford’s mind over and over again as he falls asleep and it’s these words that help him into a dreamless sleep, something he’s been aching for for years.


End file.
